N Florida Mike

Was out at daybreak. I connected first on a Big bites craw 17.5 inch fish. I switched to a fluke and got a 19 incher. Got 10 total but 8 in the first 1.5 hours. 9 of them on flukes…

I love my job. One perk is that I’m not on a clock. Pay is all commission, except for paid time off, and the rare seminars I’m paid for going to. I usually carry a combo in the work car trunk. When I’m slow enough, I fish ponds between stops. I wish you the best in your new career!

Set a little bream out, and ended up with this …

Got some bream this evening…

The two that live with me are 20 and 17. They are quiet and no trouble for the most part. Just sloppy…I made it a point to spend a lot of time with them when they were growing up. Ive had them since they were 11 and 8. Mom and dad got it together, and now they live with us and their kids. Hopefully, they’ll get it together a little more and get their own place soon….

I can’t get rid of either. They love me so much they won’t leave… I hope the grandkids don’t have kids anytime soon or we won’t even break even anymore…

I drive a work car ( Ford focus) to , during, and from work, so that accounts for the majority of my driving. Rumour has it that they’re getting me a new Ford ranger this fall. I hope so, because it’s a chore to get in and out of the focus each time ! My personal vehicle is a 2006 Gmc envoy. 287,000 miles. No AC. “ Old faithful “ was my ‘98 dodge ram that I loved. Let relatives borrow it and they totalled it…so been truck-less for 2 years now.?

My Son moved to Walker earlier this year. I thought he’d be back in a month ,but he seems to like it there…he’s already catching fish

When I’m fishing to eat, I go where and when I know I’ll catch some. With bass fishing, I’ll go anyway.

Caught a nice chunk this morning on the big bites green pumpkin craw. I was doing a steady retrieve across the top. Disregard the “ I just swallowed a lemon whole” look on my face.?

Looks like a keeper for sure. Congratulations @Mike L !!

I have a low eye for a high fence, but if I could just make it back to the smoky mountains once more I’d be satisfied. The Rockies would be great too.

I watched a lot of them with my dad. I ended up watching mostly Westerns, war movies, and adventure movies in that order. Probably my favorite movie from that era was The Searchers, with John Wayne. One of the greatest movie endings ever…

The one quantam reel I had was the one that I lost off my bass hunter. I never could get it dialed in after a lot of effort anyway…

Got a couple during a rain on an old school 3 inch rapala…Using the 2 jerk and pause retrieve…

I agree that we called em crawdads. I have heard that old timers in Florida called bass green trout but never heard anyone call them that directly. Most of the time we called chain pickerals “ jacks”. And crappies are “specks”. And several kinds of sunfish we collectively call bream. Copperheads, Flyers, redbreast, stumpknockers, shellcrackers and warmouth. Think that’s about it…

Same here. I have also learned to skip certain soft plastics well also…

Walked out on the dock just now and there was a fish feeding around the nieghbors dock across the canal. I skipped a watermelon seed super fluke over there and ….

I used it in 10 pound test , and liked it the first couple of re-lines. The next couple times I noticed I was getting more break offs on the hook set. So I have used trilene ever since with rare breaks…

My mom’s family are from SE North Carolina. So I spent a lot of time up there in the summers growing up. We mostly did surf and pier fishing for fish we could eat. We caught a lot of spots , black drum , whiting , etc. Great fishing for them with dead shrimp and bloodworms. ( spots love bloodworms). Like someone else said, I’m not sure I’d move there just for the fishing, but it can be good. For fishing only I’d come to Florida. ( Heck, everyone else has, always room for one more!)

Sorry for your loss, but hooking someone else’s combo didn’t cause you to lose one of yours. Maybe a little carelessness , throw in a cypress swamp , and you lose a combo. I feel your pain though… I was fishing in my bass hunter once and got back to the dock - minus a combo. It was an older quantam reel with a bps rod , but it still bugs me. I remembered hearing a splash right by the boat but thought I had spooked a fish. I remember the general area. The water is around 5 feet deep, with deep mud and eel grass clumps. Just too lazy to look, or maybe it’s because it’d be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Family members have lost ( or stolen ) several outfits. Can’t prove it but I know. I miraculously found one at a pawn shop app. a year after it went missing…would love to know the whole story behind that. They weren’t asking much, so I just bought it back to avoid it being in the police evidence room for months. I dont wish bad on anyone but thiefs will eventually pay one way or the other for their crimes!!

I grew up saltwater fishing that area. Matanzas used to be some of the BEST fishing anywhere. In the late 80s ( I think ) , they re-did the bridge or something and the inlet was changed. It hasn’t been as good since. Coincidentally, I went over the inlet down to bings landing today working. First time at Bing’s since I went there fishing with my dad 50+ years ago…